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County to hire more than 600 jail guards in bid to end court supervision

Tuesday, March 02, 2010Chicago Tribuneby Hal Dardick

More than 600 new Cook County Jail guards
would be hired by early next year under a plan the County Board
approved today, about 18 months after the U.S. Justice Department
released a scathing report on jail conditions.

It's part of a
plan to end federal court supervision of the county jail in two to four
years, officials said. The hiring push is contained in a proposed
60-page order that the Justice Department would file in federal court
in an agreement with the county, said Daniel Gallagher, an attorney for
Sheriff Tom Dart.

Attorneys for jail detainees in two
decades-old class-action suits also have agreed to end their cases if
the order is entered, Gallagher said.

The
July 2008 Justice Department report concluded a culture existed at Cook
County Jail that led to systematic inmate beatings and medical care was
so poor that some inmates had died.

Even before the report,
however, County Board President Todd Stroger’s administration, some of
Dart’s top brass and Health and Hospitals System officials had begun to
work with federal authorities to come up with a plan to address the
jail’s longstanding problems, said Patrick Driscoll, civil chief for
the state’s attorney’s office.

Dart would have to hire 448 new
guards by the end of this year, according to the proposed order,
obtained by the Tribune. He would have to hire another 174 by the end
of March 2011.

The proposed order also carefully delineates
other measures aimed at improving conditions. For example, it requires
that photographs or video be taken of all injuries allegedly caused by
use of force.